Running, crawling and marching for life: How can we measure a joy of one life?

I am honored to know one man. His smile is disarming and his kindness is obvious to everyone who ever met him. Some know him only through my stories because it is difficult for me to not talk about someone who has had a great influence over me. It doesn’t matter if they are six years old and can’t pronounce the “r” sound. It doesn’t matter if they can’t read (yet), and it certainly doesn’t matter that they may never be able to walk. It only matters that they are here; they are born. Sometimes it only matters that they breathe–and already they have accomplished more than some who are perfectly healthy.

These kind of people usually have some special joy—a lot larger and more contagious than the average. Faced with these kind of people, one becomes aware of the notions and truths one never thought about before: life, dignity, meaning, rights, choice, and suffering. Do we have the right to diminish suffering under every condition or should we find dignity and meaning in it? Can we choose the life we want? Are some lives more worthy than others? Where do we draw the line? Who can write off a life at its beginning and decide that it’s not worth living? Who can even define life and fit it into the narrow frameworks we create? How can we measure the joy of one life? Today it is almost humiliating to bow before something, to confess that you don’t understand that it’s larger than you. If there’s one thing before which we must do that, it is the dignity of a human life.

On Saturday, 21 May 2016, World Youth Alliance Croatia joined the first Croatian March for life. As an NGO comprised of young people who promote the dignity of every person from conception to natural death, we recognize the importance of sending the message that there are young people who rejoice in every life. I was also part of that peaceful, joyful, smiling and numerous procession. The walk itself was nothing special. For most of us it’s not a problem to walk that distance, but we walked for those who can’t walk anymore and for those who never shall. And that’s the difference. We walked for someone else, for those who are not born yet and for those who are maybe at the end of their life, because all people have inalienable human dignity. That’s why everyone who tries to see something bad in it are necessarily forced to turn a blind eye to that fact, to make digressions, personal attacks and to bring it all down to everyday politics – because the act itself is completely selfless, generous and consequently, incomprehensible for many people, as the life itself.

In Croatia and globally, World Youth Alliance aims to affirm the dignity of human life in itself. We are convinced that it is the only basis and the only common ground on which human rights can be efficiently protected in all countries and on all continents. Only when the right to life becomes the first and primary right in the minds and hearts of all people can all human rights can have their full meaning.

The boy I mentioned earlier is Vito – it means: life. He has cerebral palsy and he can only crawl. Even if he would never be able to run, his life is full of joy and we should rejoice in it. He was at the March for life on Saturday, too. And I walked for him.